Platforms in wind turbine towers provide operators safe access to areas of a wind turbine that may require servicing, maintenance and inspection. For example, the platforms are typically located adjacent to the tower flange bolts for safe and easy inspection of the flange bolts. Typically, a number of service platforms are located at different heights in the turbine tower and are fixed by welding or with bolts to the tower wall.
A conventional type of platform includes a metal plate, typically a checker plate, which is supported by a number of steel beams fixed to the tower walls. Steel beams are heavy, have to be lifted with a crane when mounting the platform in the tower, and are thus generally difficult to install. Further, a significant number of bosses, clip plates, and the like, are necessary to mount the plate to the beams, which is both time and cost intensive.
The conventional platforms are also tailored to a specific tower diameter, and must be redesigned whenever the tower shell diameter or wall thickness changes. This is due primarily to the maintaining of a required maximum space of about one-inch between the circumference of the plate and the tower wall. Thus, each tower design necessitates a unique platform design, which adds to overall construction costs and time, inventory requirements, and so forth.
In light of the above, it is desirable to have a platform for a wind turbine tower which is relatively easy to produce and assemble within the tower, and is versatile so as to be used at different diameter sections of the same or different wind turbine towers.